Bingoo Bakery Di'anmenwai Avenue 地安門外大街 (Beijing, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

For the first time on this trip, we managed to wrap up our meetings before 5pm so let the exploration of the nation’s capital begin. Once we got off our shuttle at Houhai (后海), we decided to head the direction of Houhai’s famous bar streets (后海酒吧美食街).

Houhai (Beijing’s back sea), known for its large artificial lake in downtown Beijing, is famous for its surrounding bar scene, old Hutongs, traditional courtyards and shops. And this is where we are going to enjoy our dinner tonight. At least that was our Plan A.

The night scene near Jinding Bridge (金锭桥) was breathtaking to say the least.

But after walking around the area without success, we met up with another group who was exploring the same area as we did. We ended up joining forces and the new plan was to head towards Drum Tower (鼓樓) for dinner. But I wasn't looking so far ahead. My immediate need was to find a snack to fill the tank and luckily, I ran into Bingoo Bakery, an artisan French bakery in the area.

I was attracted by the exterior of the bakery shop and decided to come in for a look.

I won't call this a wide selection but they've got different flavors of croissants, pain au chocolat and more.

Pecan cinnamon roll (碧根果杏仁碎肉桂卷) (¥18) – The Chinese name was a little tricky so I had to take a photo of this to show my server. They have missed out a very important ingredient here which was the apple.

This was pretty decent. The pastry could have been a little more flaky but the centre of chopped apple cubes and crushed pecan was fairly nice. Oh and yes, the cinnamon could have been a little stronger too. 

That got my appetite going a little bit. It's about time when we decided on a dinner venue anyways. After all, we have been walking around the same neighborhood for nearly an hour already.

Food Rating: 5.4/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: 11 Di'anmenwai Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing, China

北京市 西城区 地安門外大街 11号

Closest Metro Station: Shichahai (什刹海)

Tel: +86 18310325012

Opening Hours: 8:00am - 8:00pm daily